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Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.
In his novel Fools Crow, James Welch depicts the historical conflict in ideals and territory between the native Pikuni tribes and the Napikwans, or whites, in the Montana plains. Through perspectives of different members of the Lone Eaters and their personal progression, Welch presents the dichotomy of acting for the good of the community versus acting for personal gain and wealth. No narratives more accurately describe this internal struggle than the ones provided through Fools Crow’s and Fast Horse’s experiences. Since both start from the same relatively low status, each of their trajectories through the novel explicitly show how different
During the early to mid 1800s, the colonization of “Indians” and subordination of “women’s rights in the American society,” was very essential to those in authority. They were perceived as a mere means to an end by promises of a better life in exchange for “land and work.” Although locals complied, those in offices took advantage by using antagonistic tactics in achieving wealth, power, and ownership. However, these actions lead to “The First Seminole War, The Monroe Doctrine, Andrew Jackson’s leadership, The Indian Removal Act, The California Gold Rush, The Seneca Falls Convention, and the Birth of the Republican Party.” Although some Americans have been perceived as heroes, their actions have said otherwise about their character.
To sustain this idea of the wild man who doesn’t belong to this modern time, an image of a “vanishing” native American image starts to appear in the media. He is vanished because he has no place in this modern American word and he is uncappable to coexist with his advanced civilized peer, the white American. He disappears for no reason, and no clue, and if he didn’t vanish, he melts to become an American, in the white man way. These romanticized portrayals of Native Americans have consolidated stereotypes, what have created prejudice and social
Petalesharo’s writing reflected the treatment of Native Americans during the 1800s. Being a Native American himself, Petalesharo was able to give perspective on a point in history typically viewed from a white man’s opinion. The excerpt “Petalesharo” explains how the Native American was able “to prevent young women captured by other tribes from being sacrificed”, making Petalesharo well liked by the Americans (588). Petalesharo gave the “Speech of the Pawnee Chief” infront of Americans to convey the differences between Native Americans and Americans through emotion, logic, and credibility, which showed how the two groups will never be the same, but still can coexist in the world together.
Hilary Weaver argues in her piece of writing; that identifying indigenous identity is complex, complicated, and hard to grasp when internalized oppression and colonization has turned Native Americans to criticize one another. Throughout the text, Weaver focuses on three main points which she calls, the three facets. Self-identification, community identification, and external identification are all important factors that make up Native American identity. The author uses a story she calls, “The Big game” to support her ideologies and arguments about the issue of identity. After reading the article, it’s important to realize that Native American’s must decide their own history and not leave that open for non-natives to write about.
Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse is a thought-provoking sci-fi short story that explores the tensions and paradoxes inherent in the representation and commodification of Native American culture. Using New Criticism Theory to analyze the ways in which Roanhorse uses language and structure to create these tensions and paradoxes. In this short story, Roanhorse uses a second-person point of view to immerse readers in a “virtual” experience, providing readers with their own Indian Experience™. The story follows protagonist Jesse Turnblatt, who works as a “guide” at a virtual reality company. Throughout the story, Jesse Turnblatt experiences the commodification and cultural appropriation involved in this virtual world,
The narrative offers an account which can be used to describe the particularly puritan society based on the ideals of Christianity and the European culture. It offers a female perspective of the Native Americans who showed no respect to the other religious groups. The narrator makes serious observation about her captors noting the cultural differences as well as expectations from one another in the society. However, prejudice is evident throughout the text which makes the narratives unreliable in their details besides being written after the event had already happened which means that the narrator had was free to alter the events to create an account that favored her. Nonetheless, the narrative remains factually and historically useful in providing the insights into the tactics used by the Native Americans
Writer Sherman Alexie has a knack of intertwining his own problematic biographical experience with his unique stories and no more than “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” demonstrates that. Alexie laced a story about an Indian man living in Spokane who reflects back on his struggles in life from a previous relationship, alcoholism, racism and even the isolation he’s dealt with by living off the reservation. Alexie has the ability to use symbolism throughout his tale by associating the title’s infamy of two different ethnic characters and interlinking it with the narrator experience between trying to fit into a more society apart from his own cultural background. However, within the words themselves, Alexie has created themes that surround despair around his character however he illuminates on resilience and alcoholism throughout this tale.
Once European men stepped foot onto what is now known as North America, the lives of the Native Americans were forever changed. The Indians suffered centuries of torment and ridicule from the settlers in America. Despite the reservations made for the Natives, there are still cultural issues occurring within America. In Sherman Alexie’s, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, the tragic lives of Native Americans in modern society are depicted in a collection of short stories taking place in the Spokane Reservation in Washington state. Throughout the collection, a prominent and reoccurring melancholic theme of racism against Native Americans and their struggle to cope with such behavior from their counterpart in this modern day and age is shown.
Native communities, historically, have struggled economically compared to those of other races nationwide. So, some tribes decided to search for alternative sources of income to boost their profile and diversify their investments. One of the ideas tribes had was starting gaming operations. This idea became reality in some tribal communities with the opening of bingo operations and casinos. Today, the true effects of gaming facilities on tribal land is debated, with the consensus leaning towards minimal benefits.
Native Americans have been depicted as primitives and salvages since they were discovered by of non-natives in the Americas. These stereotypes were created through oral tradition by explorers and settlers and remained to in the present through books, radio, television, and film. This prejudice has caused Native Americans to suffer this backlash throughout their life. They have been coined noble savages or murderous heathens, especially in western movies, films, and television shows. Native American men were considered a good Indian brave, the villainous warrior, or mystic nature priest.
In all the different tribes, none of the women are seen as less than the men, however in European culture at the time, the women were seen as weak and lesser beings. Gunn Allen tackles this issue using ethos logos and pathos by appealing to the readers through logic, emotion and her personal experiences. With Ethos Gunn Allen makes herself a credible source by mentioning that she is a “half breed American Indian woman. ”(83) making her story worth paying attention to rather than if it were a story by an outsider who truly has nothing to do with the American Indian women.